Garden Inspired Health and Well-Being

Aspartame and other sweeteners, are found in everything from diet sodas to thousands and thousands of “diet” foods, “diabetic friendly” foods and even in supplements. Donald Rumsfeld (who was once the CEO of a major drug company) managed to bring this poisonousfood / drug (aspartame) to market during the Reagan administration. He used his political influence to quash anFDA toxicologist’s report naming aspartame as a cause not only for cancer, but brain tumors as well. Back in 1996, the Food and Drug Administration published a list of 92 adverse aspartame reactions that included seizures, blindness, obesity, testicular, mammary and brain tumors, sex dysfunction and death, acquired from over 10,000 consumer complaints. (and that was only in 1996!)

Why Your “Diet” Food Is Making You Fat!

Through clever advertising campaigns, the world population was made to believe that aspartame and all the other artificial sweeteners are just simple, harmless, food additives that give you the sweet taste, but help you keep slim, or even shed some extra pounds. However, the sweeteners are actually patented for “appetite enhancement”! And these drugs really do what they promise – they make you crave carbohydrates (the unhealthy kind), and thereby make you fat.

Dumbing Down Our Youth

And now, the aspartame drug has even been patented to treat sickle cell anemia, one of the many diseases it is responsible for causing. Researcher Carl Manion found that a single dose of aspartame lowered the sickle cell count in blood. Aspartame metabolizes into formic acid, a blister poison that transfers from cell to cell, killing all them and leaving behind a blister of dead tissue. Sit with that for just a minute, and integrate in your mind just what this artificial sweetener is doing to the inside of your body.

Aspartame is a synergistic methanol poison. Methanol is known to cause serious birth defects and major development disorders such as autism and attention deficit in the offspring of aspartame users. Ever since the 1950’s when aspartame, MSG and fluoride were being pushed into our marketplace, along with the harmful immunization programs, the IQ of the average high school graduate has fallen over 10%.

Sweetness At A Price

Aspartame, Sucralose and Saccharin are the most commonly used artificial sweeteners, and have gained huge popularity among people who are concerned about their weight. In the belief that they are doing something good for themselves, they are thrilled to have found the “ideal” sweetener that satisfies their sweet tooth yet doesn’t make them fat…or so they think. And, there is mounting evidence showing that artificial sweeteners are a major health risk, causing brain damage and other serious problems of the nervous system.

The sharp increase in the use of artificial sweeteners is very significant in relation to their sweetening potency. Saccharin is more than 400 times as sweet as regular sugar, aspartame is 200 times as sweet, and Splenda ranks right in-between. There is even a newly approved sweetener called “neotame”, that appears to have super strength sweetness, and hence is referred to as “super aspartame“.

Sucralose (the sweetener behind Splenda) disguised by its lovely sweet taste, is yet another Frankenstein food additive of the industry, and is readily found in many so-called “diabetic friendly” candies and foods. It is produced by chlorinating sugar molecules. Chlorinated molecules actually accumulate in body fat, and come back to haunt a body many, many years later. Splenda is synthetic, and, having a chlorinated base like DDT, it can cause auto-immune disease (the body’s natural reaction to attack and neutralize such poisons). Sucralose or Splenda is not safe, and even back in the original research, Splenda was also shown to cause many serious health problems.

Listen-Up Diabetics!

In one particular study, specifically using only diabetic patients who were consuming the artificial sweetener sucralose (Splenda), statistics showed significant increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (HgbA1c), which is a marker for long-term blood glucose levels. According to the FDA, increases in glycosylation in hemoglobin reduces control of diabetes. So, the very so-called “diabeticfriendly” candies and food you consume, actually contribute to your losing control of your diabetes. Accident or by design? You decide.

Politics As Usual

Many European countries have put out an outright ban on these deadly artificial sweeteners. In the United States however, the deceit rages on. As far back as 1970, the long list of extremely harmful health effects of these artificial sweeteners wascoming to light. It would stand to reason then, to assume that these deadly drugs / additives would be removed from our food supply right? So, why instead have these artificial sweeteners not only NOT been removed from our food supply, but they are still to this day being falsely marketing and pushed on to consumers no differently than a drug dealer on the city streets?

In 1995, the FDA was forced under the Freedom of Information Act to release it’s reports on the thousands upon thousands of people who fell victim to these artificial sweeteners, along with details of the 92 KNOWN adverse health consequences. In 1996, the FDA STOPPED taking complaints and has every since denied the existence of any such reports.

On September 30, 1980 the Board of Inquiry of the FDA concurred and denied the petition for approval of aspartame as a food additive. BUT, hold on. In 1981, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes, ignored the negative ruling and approved aspartame for dry goods. As recorded in the Congressional Record of 1985, then CEO of Searle Laboratories, Donald Rumsfeld, said he would call in his markers to get aspartame approved. Rumsfeld was on President Reagan’s transition team, and, a day after taking office, Reagan appointed Hayes.

The Constant Hunger Cycle

As if all the serious health consequences and the blatant deceit by our politicians and powers that be weren’t bad enough, let’s go back to the beginning of this article, when it was mentioned that artificial sweeteners were patented for “appetite enhancement”. This is by design, and brings in billions and billions of dollars every year, through primary and secondary reasons. Manufacturers want you toconsume more of their product, and what better way, then to add an addictive drug to it. (primary) And when consumers fall ill or become obese, then they can market drugs and weight loss products to these same consumers, claiming to remedy the very condition that they caused. (secondary)

When sugar touches the taste buds on the tongue, the sweetness is registered, and the pancreas is given the instruction to secrete insulin, which is required to make sugar available to the cells. When you consume artificial sweeteners, the body responds with the very samereaction, because it is registering the artificial sweetener as “sweetness”. Whether you consume sugar or an artificial sweetener, the body is expecting sugar. If the sugar isn’t there because you consumed an artificial sweetener, the insulin starts removing some of the blood sugar instead. This effectively lowers your blood sugar levels, and your body’s response to counter that is to flip on those hunger signals, to balance out it’s blood sugar levels. And, these ravenous cravings are usually for sugary foods, including starchy carbohydrates. If you try to satisfy these cravings with more artificial sweetened foods, the urge to overeat will become more and more intense, causing a vicious cycle of extreme overeating. If you regularly consume artificial sweeteners, your brain will maintain the constant urge to eat. And, that’s why it is not uncommon to hear of someone consuming an entire box of “diet” cookies or other so-called “diet” food.

Bottom line, is to get rid of anything with artificial sweeteners in your kitchen, with the exception of stevia. And, stop buying products with them in it. Yet another reason to become a vigilant label reader, for there is no true sweetness in artificial sweeteners.